Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Publication Date

5-15-1969

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the immediate and delayed effects of manipulating a speaker's extrinsic credibility upon measures of audience: attitude toward the speaker, agreement with the ideas presented and commitment to the speaker's proposals. Two dimensions of the speaker's extrinsic credibility were manipulated by randomly circulating written introductions of a speaker throughout an audience composed of male and female members. One aspect, the occupational role of the speaker, was manipulated in three ways: (1) an athlete, (2) a person without a given occupational role and (3) a physical educator. The second aspect manipulated was the status of the speaker. The status was manipulated in the following manner: (1) high, (2) neutral and (3) low prestige. It was hypothesized that the occupational role of an athlete would be preferred over a physical educator and that high prestige would influence the audience significantly more than low prestige in the immediate and delayed measures. It was also postulated that there would be a significant difference between male and female responses. The procedures used in conducting this experiment involved playing a tape recorded speech promoting physical fitness to the audience after they had read an introduction of the speaker. Immediate measures were taken minutes after hearing the speech and again after a period of three weeks for the delayed measures. There was no reinforcement given before the delayed measure. The measuring instrument for the delayed measure gave the subjects an opportunity to state reasons for changes in the event they had altered their evaluation. A factorial analysis of variance was employed to statistically evaluate the effects of the three occupational roles, the three prestige levels and the subject's sex. Further comparison was made using techniques designed to compare the means of the data. A total of eight hundred twenty-five undergraduate students at the University of New Mexico participated in this study. The experiment took place during regularly assigned coeducational physical education activity periods. The results indicated that there were no significant differences in speaker effectiveness related to occupational roles except in the delayed measurement in the area of commitment to the speaker's proposals. In line with some recent research, significant differences were noted for the prestige dimensions. This study indicated that females tended to give more favorable responses toward the speaker and his ideas, but were less willing to make a commitment to the speaker's proposal. Very little information was secured which would add to previous explanations of why subject responses change with the passage of time. The implications gathered from this study were: (1) occupational roles as described in this study do not have a significant impact, but the prestige of the speaker does have an impact on the immediate measures; and (2) there is a difference in the responses given a speaker between males and females.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Physical Education, Sports and Exercise Science

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences

First Committee Member (Chair)

Harold Eugene Kenney

Second Committee Member

Armond Harold Seidler

Third Committee Member

Jim Duff Hughey

Fourth Committee Member

Richard Lee Holemon

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